Governance Seams
Recommended Citation
Brett Frischmann & Paul Ohm,
Governance Seams,
37(3)
Harvard Journal Of Law &Technology
1117
(2023).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/facpubs/147
Abstract
This Essay formalizes the concept of governance seams and develops theories for what they enable; how they arise; why they are some- times dismantled; and how, why, and when regulators might step in to protect endangered governance seams or to create new ones. Governance seams are socially constructed boundaries, borders, and interfaces that harness friction-in-design to enable governance. Governance seams mediate interactions among components of sociotechnical systems and between different parties and contexts. Delineating boundaries, borders, and interfaces as loci of transparency, coordination, and oversight supports mechanisms for deliberation, contestation, and protection, both by those within and those outside the seam. The interdisciplinary theoretical account is grounded in many examples, including an extended discussion of the (smart) home.
ISSN
0897-3393
Publisher
Harvard Law School
Disciplines
Law